The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said on Thursday more than 250,000 international passports are abandoned at various offices of the Nigeria Immigration Service nationwide.
The minister stated this during the unveiling of the enhanced electronic passport facility and commissioning of the passport production centre in Abuja.
He was reacting to recent public outcry over delay in passport issuance and racketeering by immigration officers.
The minister revealed that the Federal Government where he hinted that said the Federal Government was working to phase out the old electronic passports in the country.
He said: “But it will interest you to know that between 2019 and now, the NIS has issued about 3 million passports to Nigerians. Last year alone, 1.3 million passports were issued.
“Also, last time I checked, over 250,000 passports remain uncollected by applicants. Their owners will probably be among those complaining they are yet to receive their passports.
“Nevertheless, many applicants are not going to have their passports because of the errors in their applications, which delayed processing. They may not know because they applied through touts and other illegal channels.”